aved me.'

'You must stay quietly here till the time of your punishment is over,'
answered Eglantine. But when the morning dawned, and the girl turned
into a doe, the longing for the forest came over her, and she sprang
away as before.

As soon as the prince was awake he hastened to the place where, only the
day before, he had found the white doe feeding; but of course she had
taken care to go in the opposite direction. Much disappointed, he
tried first one green path and then another, and at last, wearied with
walking, he threw himself down and went fast asleep.

Just at this moment the white doe sprang out of a thicket near by,
and started back trembling when she beheld her enemy lying there. Yet,
instead of turning to fly, something bade her go and look at him unseen.
As she gazed a thrill ran through her, for she felt that, worn and
wasted though he was by illness, it was the face of her destined
husband. Gently stooping over him she kissed his forehead, and at her
touch he awoke.

For a minute they looked at each other, and to his amazement he
recognized the white doe which had escaped him the previous day. But in
an instant the animal was aroused to a sense of her danger, and she fled
with all her strength into the thickest part of the forest. Quick as
lightning the prince was on her track, but this time it was with no wish
to kill or even wound the beautiful creature.

'Pretty doe! pretty doe! stop! I won't hurt you,' cried he, but his
words were carried away by the wind.

At length the doe could run no more, and when the prince reached her,
she was lying stretched out on the grass, waiting for her death blow.
But instead the prince knelt at her side, and stroked her, and bade her
fear nothing, as he would take care of her. So he fetched a little water
from the stream in his horn hunting cup, then, cutting some branches
from the trees, he twisted them into a litter which he covered with
moss, and laid the white doe gently on it.

For a long time they remained thus, but when Desiree saw by the way that
the light struck the trees, that he sun must be near its setting, she
was filled with alarm lest the darkness should fall, and the prince
should behold her in her human shape.

'No, he must not see me for the first time here,' she thought, and
instantly began to plan how to get rid of him. Then she opened her mouth
and let her tongue hang out, as if she were dying of thirst, and the
prince, as she expected